Well, I’ve survived my first week of classes! It’s been a whirlwind of exhausted rambling, 2 mile walks, illegible notes and an abundance of hot-chocolate and lempsips (Freshers’ Flu is an absolute killer), but I made it out of my last lecture today still conscious! Yay!

I now have a three day weekend (which is why I love Glasgow University and their amazing timetables!!) to work on my ‘to-do list’. This won’t come as a surprise to anyone reading this who knows me, but my new friends seem shocked by the fact it’s five pages long. First on the list is to put in a request with the accommodation folk to fix the lock in the shower. Twice now, after the trying ordeal of switching the shower off, I’ve been left standing in just my towel wondering if I have the strength to knock the door down or if I’d have to get someone to take the lock off, and see me practically starkers, dripping wet and blue from the cold. Thankfully, I’ve managed to open the door both times, using only my flip-flop and a bottle of shampoo. Probably best not to ask. I should mention, actually, that the reason I’ve been having such a time of it when turning the shower off is that it doesn’t have a cord, or on/off button like I have at home and every time I go to turn it off, I forget that, when you twist the dial all the way from 8 to zero, you turn the temperature all the way down to what I’m pretty certain, is almost into minus figures.

I’m slowly getting used to the little oddities of my flat. The ice blast in the shower is a great motivator for learning these things quickly. It’s the little things that cause the most bother now, like the electric cooker. I’ve only ever used gas and cooking without a flame means I don’t know how hot the ring is, or if it’s on at all. I soon find out though, either when smoke starts pouring out of my pasta or after fifteen minutes staring at my porridge wondering why it’s not cooked yet.

Similarly, it is the little things that cause me the most homesickness now. Last week, every time I spoke to my parents on Skype, or on the phone, every time I thought to go into the living room to watch t.v., every time I looked around and saw all of my things in a strange room, in a strange flat, in a strange city, it was reason for tears and worry. Now, it’s things like, wholemeal bread instead of white, eating lemon curd in my porridge with out looks of disgust and having hot chocolate and marshmallows for breakfast that make me stop and get that tingly, butterfly feeling in my stomach. My friend suggested it may well be the lemon curd and breakfast hot chocolate that’s giving me the ‘tingly’ stomach, but I’m pretty sure I just miss home. I’ve done better this week keeping my emotions under control, though. There’s been much less tears and fears this week than last.

Perhaps that’s just because I’m too exhausted to feel or think anything more complicated than ‘must not fall asleep during lectures’. I’ve started doing the things I used to do last year, when my insomnia was really bad; putting toast in the fridge, leaving the flat for Uni in my slippers, speaking to inanimate objects, etc. The last one was actually my attempt to get over writers’ block. I don’t know why I thought having a conversation with my alarm clock would help, but it definitely didn’t.

My worry about falling asleep during lectures has been pointless though, I’m far too fascinated by what’s going on in them to fall asleep. English Literature is great, we’re studying poetry just now and it’s something I have a lot of trouble analysing, so the information they’re giving us is really useful. I find it odd that I used to write a lot of poetry but know absolutely nothing about it’s structure, style, rhythm, metre etc. I assume most people who have read my attempts at poetry would not be as surprised as I am that I have no idea how a poem works, but there we go.

Theology and Religious Studies is absolutely brilliant. In higher RMPS last year we spent months going over the Buddhist religion, and we’re now expected to know the same amount of detail for Islam, Christianity and Judaism but we only have three weeks for each one. I don’t have the slightest idea how I’m going to manage to do so but I’m definitely looking forward to attempting it! And Philosophy is good too, not as interesting as Theology or English yet, but I imagine if I actually read the works we’re discussing (Rene Descartes’ Meditations) I’d probably find it a lot more informative!

That’s what I’m planning to do over this weekend, if I ever manage to complete my to-do list, read the books for my subjects. I have so many, I’m completely overwhelmed. Who would have thought an English Lit student would have a lot of reading to do?

I should say thank you, at this point, for all the messages I got after my last post. To be honest, I’m just surprised anyone bothered to read it. You have no idea how shocked I am when I check the blog and see that I’ve had thirty-odd views a day since I put it up. Even stranger, is that people are actually searching for my blog on Google! Some people have lees to do with themselves than I thought! But it’s lovely to hear feedback, do feel free to comment again.

Anyway, I’m going to go now I have a Jane Austen Society Pub Crawl on tonight. Yes, I’m just that cool. Bye!